Use of the Datasets
Various digital datasets held by the Department are now available for download from this website. This data can be used by Geographical Information Systems (GIS). The datasets that can be downloaded here are only digital boundaries - there is no background mapping. The digitising is based on Land & Property Services (LPS) / Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland (OSNI) maps and they can supply vector and raster maps for background mapping for Northern Ireland.
If you are unsure how to use these files, please refer to the Instructions.
By downloading and using these files, you agree to be bound by the
Terms and Conditions.
File Formats
Free application ArcGIS Explorer is available for download from ESRI, the makers of ArcView; which allows these datasets to be viewed. The datasets are available as zipped shapefiles which is the file format used by ArcView. Shapefiles can be read by most GIS packages, look in the Help section of your software on how to import them.
Some of these datasets are also available in GML format. This is an open source format for geographical data and is specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium. If you have problems reading these files, please contact waterinfo@daera-ni.gov.uk.
Zip Files
Zipping a file means that the file is compressed to a more manageable size, saving you time on downloads. The files will have to be unzipped before they can be used in a GIS package. To get WinZip, click http://www.winzip.com/win/en/index.htm
Water Datasets
- NIEA Catchment Data Map Viewer
- River Basin Districts
- Historical Landuse
- Industrial and Domestic Consents
- Surface Water Bodies
- Surface Water Bodies - Monitoring Sites
- Abstractions
- Marine
- Lakes
- Rivers
- Groundwater
- Karst
- Catchment Stakeholder Groups
- Local Management Areas
Natural Environment Division Datasets
Natural Environment Division (NED) also have a page of Digital Datasets to download.